CARLSBORG — Clallam County Sheriff’s Office investigators Wednesday were seeking a man who fled Tuesday night with about $300 in cash after brandishing a gun at a clerk at the Hardy’s Market and Texaco gas station.
The unidentified clerk was shaken but unharmed after the robber pointed a silver semi-automatic pistol at her during the 6:40 p.m. holdup at the market at the corner of Taylor Cutoff Road and U.S. Highway 101, said Chief Criminal Deputy Ron Cameron.
The Clallam County Sheriff’s Office is seeking assistance from the public in identifying the robber, who is described as a white man, 5 feet 7 inches tall with a slender build, wearing a blue or gray hooded sweatshirt and black ski mask.
Anyone with information is asked to phone Sgt. John Hollis at 360-461-9257.
“Of the 17 years I’ve been in business, I’ve never had a store robbed,” said Randy Dupont, who has owned the Taylor Cutoff Hardy’s for almost two years and the Hardy’s store at Old Olympic Highway and Sequim-Dungeness Way for six years.
“I wish they would have got the guy,” Dupont said.
“The worst thing was putting the clerk through what he did. She’s fine; she’s just really shook up.
“It’s just some desperate people doing desperate things.”
Cameron said the clerk did the right thing by handing over the money from the cash register.
“After the bad guy left, they locked the door and pretty much secured the store” before phoning 9-1-1 emergency dispatch to report the robbery, Cameron said.
The robber ran up Taylor Cutoff Road on foot and may have fled in a getaway car parked nearby, Cameron said.
A Port Angeles Police Department K-9 unit police dog tracked the robber’s scent about an eighth of a mile south to a point near a driveway on Taylor Cutoff Road, Cameron said.
“The dog was pretty definitive when it took us to that driveway,” Cameron said.
“It was either somebody waiting there in a car or the subject had a car.”
In the dark of night, no witness saw the man flee in a car, Cameron said.
No surveillance camera photo of the robber was immediately available.
Sequim police officers, State Patrol troopers and Border Patrol agents assisted in the search.
“The officers had pretty quick response,” Cameron said.
Hardy’s Market 2, as the Carlsborg store is called, has a Texaco and Pacific Pride gas station.
Cameron said Clallam County robberies usually happen at banks where there is more cash on hand.
“Real bona fide robberies at commercial establishments are fairly rare,” he said.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.